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Nobody talks about the last ball of the Ashes. The opening delivery that's renowned. That wide that reaches the slip cordon, that elegant shot for four, that dismissal, clean bowled! Final deliveries? I had to look them up. Ali cutting a stroke behind to end an innings loss in a inconsequential game in 2015; Rankin being caught in the slips off Ryan Harris, Rankin featuring in his single Test at the tail-end of a 30-over collapse in a comprehensive defeat that's been plentiful in 2014; a Harmison short ball deflecting off Justin Langer's shoulder for extras, the only four the Aussies score in a pursuit they'll not undertake in 2005.

It's the difference between speculating how things will go, and understanding how they do. One certainty is, there's no guarantee there will be a happy ending. For the previous decade, England's visits to Australia have concluded in failure, instead of with them. Andy Flower lost his job as manager after one humiliating defeat, in 2013-14, Chris Silverwood lost his after another, in 2021-22. One could assemble a pair of XIs out of England players who participated in their concluding Test match at the tail end of an Australian tour during the past 25 years, and even have a several individuals over to carry the drinks for each squad.

The current English side have not professed to worry excessively about outcomes. Ben Stokes, like Eoin Morgan with the ODI squad before him, consistently states that regardless of whether a lifted stroke is grabbed near the fence matters less as whether it was the correct choice to attempt it in the outset, and in the field he's quick to praise a pitcher who gives away boundaries so long as they help bring the team nearer to taking that subsequent dismissal. But then the very reason Stokes tried to guide his players to adopt this approach was so they would be in a superior situation to deliver the style of play he thinks will perform effectively for them in Australia.

The upcoming Ashes, for which they have been training rigorously, already appears as the result they can't get away from. It is this aggressive approach's make or break moment. And there are numerous predictions of failure in the English game for the team to escape criticism if they do suffer another bad defeat in the upcoming period. His methodology has been based on defying expectations, and the flipside is it feels as if there are plenty of people who would be thrilled to be proven correct.

In light of this, it's a suitable occasion to highlight that the important question goes beyond where this all ends up, but regardless of whether we had fun along the way. Four years ago, England were an completely dismal national side. They had been overcome in a quartet of successive tournaments and were trailing in the fifth one, against India, when it was suspended because of Covid. They had won only one Test match out of a series of 17, and lost 12 of them by large defeats. Eight wickets to the Kiwis at the historic venue, 157 runs to India at the the famous stadium, an a comprehensive loss to the Australians at the iconic ground, A defeat by ten wickets to the Caribbean side in Grenada.

The team was soundly beaten by West Indies in the venue in spring 2022 just before Root stepped down as leader.

By the end, after all those stretches of health protocols and preventive measures and biosecure bubbles and constant defeats at the hands of all opponents, they were practically the most miserable and careworn Test team the English cricket board had ever sent out to a sports ground. A great deal of what Stokes and Brendon McCullum have done in the years since was in a consequence of all that, as well as the Stokes' individual trials during his time away from the game in 2021 when he had endured a bout of anxiety. It was designed to emphasize to all that it was intended as fun, if it was intended as anything at all.

That remains true now. Even when the Ashes is on the line, and regardless if the team have finally recognized that they need to be a slightly versatile in the way they tackle performing. Everyday life has a way of crowding in, it can be difficult to remember the knowledge we acquire in our most difficult periods.

Presented is the English squad that secured successive final innings pursuits of 277, 299, and 296 in one summer against the Kiwis; that scored a huge total to overcome the Indian team that corresponding period; that became the pioneering away squad to win a whitewash in the subcontinent country; that showed resilience to a draw after going 2-0 down in the the series; that beat India in the historic venue off the back of one of the finest batting displays ever played in the the region, and then defeated Pakistan in Multan off the back of another.

This is the national side, too, that managed to end up losing a Test by an innings defeat even though the rivals made a modest 326; who concluded losing one of the finer contests ever staged after making a bold declaration in the opening session against New Zealand, and then repeated the action against the Australian team; who were routed by a huge margin in the venue, and who were on the losing side of one of the island nation's greatest victories. Collectively, they have recorded some of the surprising successes, suffered some of the poorest performances, achieved some of the most improbable centuries, and achieved some of the most remarkable exceptional bowling spells in the annals of the national sport.

However this prestigious tournament shakes out, they have been, in turn, amazing, unbelievable, absurd, infuriating, and entirely, unapologetically, boldly enjoyable.